“Very few young teenagers have a clear enough idea of their pathway at that age to select math courses wisely,” she writes. They rely on adults.

Kids who don’t have the good fortune to have engaged, educated parents are at the mercy of their teachers’ and counselors’ expectations — and the quality of their particular schools’ courses and teachers — when course-signup time rolls around.

. . . Just as those who advocate raising the bar for all kids need a plan for getting even the most disadvantaged kids over that bar, those who advocate allowing students to take a less-rigorous curriculum if they choose must have a plan that ensures they will still have a multitude of good career or college choices open to them when they are finally mature enough to make those choices.

Many students slide through allegedly college-prep classes without actually mastering the reading, writing and, especially, math skills they’re supposed to have learned. Teachers are pressured to pass weak students so they can earn a diploma. The student who sits through Algebra 2 in a daze and gets pushed out with a D would be better off in a class on essential math skills needed to avoid remedial classes in community college.